In the fourth quarter Marietta got a few breaks and rallied from a 13-point and pulled out a 70-67 victory over Springfield Central in one of the boys’ quarterfinals game Thursday night at Neosho High School.

The Blue Devils trailed 59-51 going into the fourth quarter and found a way to hang around, despite not taking the lead until late.

In one key stretch, Marietta was on a 9-3 run and trailed by only two points, 62-60.

Springfield Central’s Johnathan Gray hit a 3-pointer from the wing to make it 65-60 with five minutes to play.

Marietta (9-2) didn’t go away, as Julian Bratton scored a basket and on the next possession he missed a layup, but Chris Tanzy was there for the tip-in with 4:09 to play, making it 65-64.

Springfield’s Central Reeves stepped up and scored on a layup with 2:37 to play to extend the Bulldogs’ lead to 67-64.

Bratton scored with a minute and half and Tanzy got a steal and scored with 55 seconds left to give the Blue Devils a 68-67 lead.

It was the first time in the game that Marietta held the lead, but it was enough to pull out the win.

Central had two possessions to attempt to tie it, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer that could’ve tied the game up.

“We really talked about half we gave them 18 points after the first quarter and 40 at half,” said Marietta coach Charlie Hood. “We haven’t done that all year against anybody. It’s a little bit of an adjustment period for us we try to play without J.C. (Ward) He is 6-foot-6 and he is our division I signee (East Tennessee). He didn’t make the trip.
He had trouble with his dad with a grade and didn’t make the trip. We are used to him getting 12 or 18 rebounds. They out-rebounded and outhustled us and they shot the ball well in the first half.”

Monett (4-6) dropped its fifth straight game to Springdale, Ark., Thursday, falling 57-51 in the second round of the Neosho Holiday Tournament at Neosho High School.

This after Springdale (6-6) scored only 20 points on Wednesday against San Diego.

“Early on we still had a little bit of the San Diego hangover,” Springdale head coach Bill Taylor said after the game. “That (scoring 20 points) really destroyed our confidence last night and it took us a half to wake up.”

At the break, the Bulldogs had already matched their offensive output from the day before, but still found themselves down by 10 points, 30-20.

“It took us a while to start playing a little bit,” Taylor said. “We didn’t play very well, but Monett played extremely hard and they deserved to win as well, but I’m really happy that we fought back after being down 10 at the half.”

The Bulldogs began hitting some shot that hadn’t been falling in the first half. Shay Baldwin led the way with three treys and 12 points in the second half.

“Baldwin stepped up and got us going at the end of the third,” Taylor said. “We always talk about winning the end of the quarter situations and we were able to finally win one in the third.”

Monett’s point guard Adam Witt fouled out in the fourth quarter,which Taylor attributes to his teams comeback.

“I think that was the difference,” he said. “They had trouble beating our press and were not able to get into their offense. When (Witt) fouled out, that seemed to take a little of their rhythm away from them.”

The Bulldogs outscored Monett 21-8 in the third quarter.

Down by three (41-38) to open the fourth quarter, Monett got into foul trouble. Along with Witt, Patrick Dargan also fouled out. Both teams combined to commit 44 fouls throughout the game.

Springdale took advantage at the line, hitting 9-of-17 in the final frame.

The Bulldogs play Carthage at 4:30 p.m. today and Monett plays McDonald County in an early game Friday.